Japan Trip 2008
Day Nine

Where were we headed today? Tsukiji fish market!

Tsukiji fish market is the biggest wholesale fish and seafood market in the world
and also one of the largest wholesale food markets of any kind.

According to the book we have to reach here at 5.30am to witness the tuna auction.
Tunas the size of a small german car, it says.

Sadly, we didn’t make it at 5.30am. We came at 10am. LOLz.

By the time we got there, these little stuff were left.
Everyone was washing down their stores and packing up.

Feels just like our local markets. Except, there’s no smell.
Everything is either very clean, or very fresh.

Defrosted tuna chunks. Huge can!
Pity we didn’t get to see the actual size of it before they got sawed down.

Here the early bird gets the tuna. Late ones like us have to settle for 3000yen lobsters.

We did manage to see these half sawed frozen tunas. Yes they use saws to cut things here.

These look really, juicy delicious. xD

L O N G super sharp knives they use after defrosting.

This center of the market, where they hold the auctions. Check out the pull carts close to the bottom left of the photo. That’s what they use to drag the full length tunas around.

The outer ring of the market, they sell knives!
I wanted to get one for my mom, but then i thought, maybe not. lol.

Apart from knives they also have lots of eating corners with
the absolute freshest stuff, right from the market.

You know what this lane is?

Hello Morning spot! lol. Value ++

The queue to these little outlets can get rather long.
Came all the way, must try! So we got in line.

They all look the same to me. lol. Salmon, Tuna, and 2 more i can’t remember.

Inside the shop. NO PHOTOGRAPHY it says. So no photos of the meal.
It was awesome though. Melts in your mouth! Raw fish never tasted this good. xD

After the meal we walked to Ginza, since it looked near on the map. Long walk!
Did you know Ginza is recognized as one of the most luxurious shopping
destinations in the world? woot.

The place where we took this photo from was special. Know why?

Hello Morning spot! lol. Kamei was selling buns here on one of the episodes.
Note the Mont Blanc building in the background. That’s how we found out xD

See the Burberry building behind the guy?

1 umbrella = S$400

Uber classy inside.

Their lifts had their trademark check pattern.

Along with their toilets.

Even the stairs! I sooooo want this carpet.

Right, we couldn’t even afford a hankie in the place, so out we went.

See the line of people with umbrellas? They were queueing for something.

Turns out it was the opening of this new H&M building in Ginza.

Walked around for a bit, checking out cool shop displays and insanely expensive items.

I wonder how much $ gets spent on hiring the agency to design these retail displays.

Finally something affordable. But we bought our share of Uniqlo stuff in Kyoto,
so we didn’t go in.

Dior and Armani building~!

Gucci here. At this point i was wondering where the famous all glass Prada building was.

Banana Republic!

This was a very nice pink building.

Mikimoto ya.

Never heard of DeBeers in Singapore, but the building was plain cool.

Can’t forget Bvlgari can we.

Walked the whole Ginza stretch to the next train station. Heading to Odaiba now.

The train runs through the famous Rainbow Bridge. Looking forward to seeing it at night.

We’re here! Odaiba is basically a series of man made islands in the Bay of Tokyo.

Here’s the map of Odaiba. Yes it’s only this big. Just 3 little islands.
We came in from the top left, Rainbow Bridge.

It hold some of the most futuristic buildings in the world.
Including this awesome cat mouth doorway. lol.

Wilson left to go play with his cats for a good hour or so while i walked around the area.
They even have an indoor “Hong Kong”.

Outside the Tokyo Joypolis.

Looks like a scene from some old school space station movie.

Had tons of time to spare while waiting for the sun to set.
We wanted to catch the Rainbow Bridge at night.

So we had McFlurry, Japan style, with caramel. Sweetness overdose.

Brand new Sony products in the next building. We’ve never even seen this in Singapore.

Phones too cool to be used back at home.

Random graphic inspired shop. Checkout the pimp umbrella on the right.

Like 7 caricature artists in the same spot can.

Statue of Liberty in Japan? And Wilson doing what he does best, running into my shots. xD

It’s not a well know fact that Japan already has the technology to teleport people.

Fuji TV station! We came in hopes of meeting Ueto Aya.

Only her poster here though. :(

This is the only place i’ve seen the same long escalator ride up, then straight, then up again.

The building is actually “hollow”. See the big ball on top? That’s where we’re headed.

Had to get tickets first. It was about 5.30pm, closing soon.

270deg view of the surrounding area from the observatory.

When you first step into the ball it’s quite impressive.

It’s like standing in a huge, ball.

They have a little corner for you to green screen yourself with the actual newscasters
to report on the sporting news. There’s even a girl flipping the cue cards!

There’s the Rainbow Bridge. It’s still not dark yet.

Sat around and chilled.
You can watch all 8 channels of fuji TV at the same time from their many LCD TVs.

Finally it was dark. But the Rainbow Bridge wasn’t rainbow! LIES!! LIES!!!

Group shot! lol.

Outside the Fuji TV building.

Cool neon lighted escalator ya.

Walking towards the bay area. See the golden ball? We were there.

View from the ground. The bridge did change colors over a REALLY LONG time.

Awww…

Act like in New York. It started to drizzle at this point.

Went back indoors to look for food. This was a cool ad.

The uber cute staff here spoke better english than me! owned.

Found out i ordered pumpkin soup.

View from the restaurant.

Super satisfying dinner. Without a doubt the tastiest burger i’ve ever tried.

After this it was a long train ride back to the hotel.
The weather was terrible throughout the day.
We were hoping for clear skies tomorrow.